57-year-old stowaway who flew from New York to Paris found guilty

A woman was found guilty by a jury on Thursday for sneaking onto a flight from New York to Paris without a boarding pass by eluding security and airline personnel at John F. Kennedy International Airport last year. Svetlana Dali’s trial ended with a conviction on a stowaway charge by jurors in federal court in Brooklyn. The sentencing date was not immediately set by the judge. Dali, a 57-year-old Russian citizen with U.S. residency, faces a potential six-month prison sentence according to her sentencing guidelines. Her lawyer, Michael Schneider, chose not to comment after the verdict, as reported by The Associated Press.

Security footage showed Dali attaching herself to a group of passengers with tickets as they passed by Delta Air Lines staff who were checking tickets and did not notice her. She then proceeded with the group onto a plane headed for Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. In court, Dali admitted to boarding the plane without a boarding pass, although she acknowledged not having one.

Prosecutors revealed that Dali had been turned away initially at a security checkpoint at JFK but managed to bypass security measures by joining a special lane for airline employees. She then hid among an Air Europa flight crew to reach a screening area before making her way to the Delta gate. During the flight, she concealed herself in a bathroom for several hours and was only discovered by Delta crew members as the plane approached Paris. She claimed she entered the bathroom because she was feeling unwell.

French authorities apprehended Dali upon arrival in Paris before she cleared customs. Following her return to New York, she was questioned by an FBI agent, where she explained that she flew to France due to safety concerns in the U.S. Dali was first released with electronic monitoring after her arrest but was re-arrested in Buffalo, New York, after cutting off the monitor and attempting to enter Canada.

Prosecutors noted that Dali had evaded security at other airports before the JFK incident and may have stowed away on a previous flight. Days before the Paris flight incident, she managed to pass through security checkpoints at Bradley International Airport in Connecticut by blending in with passengers. In 2024, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents found her hiding in a bathroom at Miami International Airport, where she claimed to have just arrived on an Air France flight. Authorities, however, could not verify her story.

Though federal agents did not confirm Dali’s illegal travel to Miami, her statements following her arrest in Paris suggested otherwise. She claimed to have returned to the U.S. in 2024 after being in Europe, but there were no records of her recent entry into the country within the past five years.